I just wanted to share some of the response we received to our recent article, “Should Universities Ban Bottled Water.” Pennsylvania State University’s College of Education Ph. D Candidate, Peter Buckland claims that, “The pros for bottled water are pretty vapid and easily refuted” by the following arguments (directly quoted):

People have not turned to less healthy alternatives in any study I have seen.

In the name of convenience universities can work with students to create easy-to-reuse bottles that they can carry with them. That is real convenience.

Choice is used to create a false sense of entitlement that generates waste in the name of freedom and convenience. It’s utter nonsense. Smokers said it should be their choice over other people’s health to smoke wherever they wanted to when the side effects were clear. The same argument, though more protracted works in this case.

The notion that you make bottled water always available in the name of an emergency when the emergency doesn’t exist at all times is pretty silly. Though the analogy is a little bit weak in this case, everyone isn’t allowed to carry a concealed weapon because there MIGHT be a killer in the restaurant you are in. Should we have access to any other number of ecologically and socially degrading things in the name of disasters? If anything, that’s an argument for the stockpiling and reserving of water for emergencies. When I was a kid we had a giardia outbreak where I lived and the national guard brought us water. Take care of water with tax money and not with private waste.

He makes some interesting points… What do you guys think?

Feel free to contribute to the discussion by posting a comment below or e-mail [email protected] to be featured in a separate post.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more responses from other universities. Not affiliated with a university? That’s okay – we still want to hear from you..